Glossary of Recruiting Terms
Glossary of Recruiting Terms are from the book: Athletic Recruiting - What You Need to Know by Dennis K. Reischl

Academic Support Staff - The administrator, tutors and other support personnel involved in helping student athletes enroll in courses and maintain the grades necessary to retain eligible for competition. At some schools, the academic support staff will also help student athletes to line up job opportunities after graduation.
Athletic Scholarship - Also sometimes referred to as a grant-in-aid, this is the actual agreement to provide financial aid to a student athlete. Depending on the level of competition and the sport involved, the scholarship agreement usually specifies the amount of financial assistance the school will provide. It also may reflect the conditions the student has to meet to maintain it. For example, maintaining a certain grade point average.

Blue Chip Player - A blue chipper is a top-level recruit who is so athletically superior that it appears likely that he or she will be able to contribute to a program quickly and substantially. Such players are also often referred to as highly recruited, since they usually receive a lot of media attention, hear from many schools and may receive scholarship offers from several colleges.

Booster - A fan, supporter, contributor or alumnus who enthusiastically -- perhaps even rabidly -- supports a college athletic team. Unfortunately, the occasional willingness of boosters to go beyond cheering and legitimate help by directly contacting players or offering them or their relatives money, overpaid jobs, clothing, free rent, cars and the like, has landed more than one program in hot water with the NCAA. It has also cost more than one student athlete his or her remaining eligibility when word has gotten out. There is nothing wrong with being a booster. But there's a lot wrong with accepting improper gifts or services from one. NCAA rules prohibit boosters from contacting prospective athletes by mail, telephone or in person.

Camps and Clinics - Skill-building sessions, usually ranging in length from 1 to 5 days. Most camps are conducted by colleges, though some are conducted by former coaches or sports personalities who are no longer affiliated with a particular school. Fees vary depending on the length and quality of the camp and whether a player commutes to it or lodges and eats at the facility.

Campus Visits - These come in two flavors -- official and unofficial. An official visit is one in which a school pays to transport, feed and lodge a recruit at its campus while a) further evaluating the prospect and b) seeking to persuade him or her to enroll. An unofficial visit is one in which a prospect goes to a campus at his or her own expense -- usually to attend a game, tour facilities or talk with coaches and academic officials. There is no limit on the number of unofficial visits you can make.

College Partnership Database - All College Bound Student-Athletes are entered into a computer that can be accessed by college coaches with their specific academic and athletic requirements in mind. A coach can simply contact College Partnership in order to retrieve their specific requests.

Combine - A series of organized tests and measurements designed to assess athletic potential. Participants' height and weight are usually taken, and they are usually required to complete a series of events to determine speed, agility, strength and jumping ability.
Some combines also provide instruction in related areas, such as college application procedures, tips for taking standardized test, recruiting rules and financial aid.

Contact - Any face-to-face encounter that occurs between a prospect or his/her parent or legal guardian and an institutional staff member or athletics representative involving more than a greeting. In plain English, that means any meeting between you or your parents and any representative of a school -- official or otherwise -- in which they say more than HI.

Core Courses - Under NCAA rules these consist of a total of 13 required academic courses in which a student athlete must achieve a minimum grade of 2.00 in order to receive a college athletic scholarship. Core courses include English (4 years), Math (2 years), Science (2 years), Social Science (2 years) and an additional 4 courses drawn either from these same areas or in a Foreign Language, Computer Science, Philosophy or non-doctrinal Religion.

Division - The level of competition at which a particular sport operates within its athletic association. The NCAA has three divisions -- I, II and III. The NAIA has two divisions -- 1 and 2. Rules governing recruiting, scholarships and competition vary somewhat depending on the division level at which a sport competes.
Early Signing Period - A one-week period in November during which athletes participating in sports other than football can sign a National Letter of Intent committing them to attend a specific school. The regular signing period for most sports falls in April. See Signing Day definition.

Financial Aid - Financial assistance that is not directly or overtly linked to athletic performance -- although athletic participation may have been one of the factors considered in granting the aid. For example, a student athlete might be the recipient of aid based on financial need, academic merit, leadership or plain old gift aid. Conference and association rules vary, but many schools that do not permit outright athletic scholarships still allow a variety of other forms of assistance to promising students who, as it happens, may also carry the school colors in competition.

Gender Equity - The term used to describe the various efforts colleges are making to provide athletic opportunities for women proportionate to their representation in the student population. In order to bring athletic expenditures into better balance, many colleges are increasing the number of sports -- and therefore the number of scholarships -- available to women athletes.

Graduation Rate - Data concerning the number and percentage of student athletes who have graduated from a college or university within a 6-year period. NCAA rules require its member schools to file reports on such data and to provide it to prospects before they sign a National Letter of Intent.

Green Chip Player - College Partnership trademarked term used for a top student-athlete that is not quite to the level of a blue chip athlete. See Blue Chip Player definition.

JUCO - An abbreviation of the term junior college. It is used to refer to two-year junior and community colleges, as well as to the players who are recruited from them. Junior colleges and the players from them are also sometimes referred to as JC's. Participation on a JUCO team counts against one's overall eligibility.

Letter of Intent - An official document that binds a student athlete to an athletic scholarship at a particular college or university. Under the program administered by the Collegiate Commissioners Association on behalf of NCAA Division I and II schools, once a Letter of Intent is signed by a student athlete and his or her parent or guardian, the student athlete cannot attend and compete at another institution which subscribes to the Letter of Intent program without a) being released from the commitment and b) sitting out a year of competition. Most NCAA Division I and II schools and some -- though not all -- junior colleges and NAIA schools subscribe to similar programs.

Meat Market - An unflattering term for camps and clinics that are operated for the primary purpose of affording college coaches a chance to appraise the athletic ability of participants. One earmark of such camps is an abundance of attention paid to the high-profile athletes, while considerably less time and attention is spent on the rest. Needless to say, no camp overtly advertises that this is their approach, so it's a good idea to ask around to find out whether a camp is the real thing or just a meat market. Ask your coaches and players who have previously attended a particular camp.

NAIA - The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is a federation of about 400 schools, approximately 80 percent of which are small Christian colleges. Over 60,000 athletes compete in 26 men's and women's sports at NAIA schools.
Athletic scholarships and a variety of other financial aid is available at member colleges. NAIA recruiting and competition rules closely resemble -- and in many cases are identical to -- those of the NCAA.

NCAA - The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a regulatory body which establishes rules governing eligibility, recruiting and competition for over 800 member colleges and universities which offer a wide range of men's and women's collegiate sports. The NCAA offers numerous publications for coaches and prospective athletes, rules on a wide variety of issues involving athletes and programs, and constantly updates its rules through an active legislative function.

NCAA Clearinghouse - Actually, the full title is the NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse is an NCAA administrative function that gathers prospects' standardized test scores and academic transcripts, and then provides them to colleges which request the information.

Student athletes who wish to be recruited by NCAA Division I or II schools must provide such information to the Clearinghouse, rather than sending it directly to interested colleges and universities. The NCAA charges student athletes a one-time fee which may be waived in hardship cases. The phone number for the NCAA is (319) 337-1492.
Copies of the NCAA brochure, Making Sure You Are Eligible to Participate in College Sports and the Student Release Form that you must file can be obtained either from your high school counselor, directly from the Clearinghouse or from any NCAA Division I or II member school.

Official Visit - See Campus Visits

On-the-Bubble - A term used to describe the situation of athletes a) who are sufficiently athletically talented that they might eventually be offered a scholarship or other financial aid but have not yet received an actual offer or b) who are still undecided as to which of several offers to accept.

Prep School - A post-high school, but non-collegiate academic institution in which student athletes enroll to a) improve their academic performance or standardized test scores or b) to athletically mature in hope of increasing their chances of obtaining an athletic scholarship. Participation in sports at a prep school does not count against collegiate eligibility.

Profile - A verified and detailed RESUME on a student-athlete designed specifically for review by college coaches. A creditable profile should be constructed by an independent third-party, preferably an established recruiting service. The profile should include the following and more... various athletic accomplishments, statistics, speed, grades, academic accomplishments, comments, etc.

Proposition 48 - That portion of the NCAA rules which requires a student athlete to attain established minimum test scores in the ACT or SAT, as well as qualifying grades in specified core academic courses. A student athlete who enters an NCAA Division I college without attaining these minimum requirements must sit out one full year of competition to improve his or her academic performance. Student-athletes entering college under this arrangement are also sometimes referred to as Prop 48s.

Prospect - A student athlete who has entered at least the ninth grade and is sufficiently athletically talented to draw the interest of college recruiters. The term is not an exact one, however, some recruiters distinguish between suspects and prospects.
The distinction being that only those athletes who survive an initial screening for size, speed, athletic and academic achievement are regarded as legitimate prospects -- while all others remain mere suspects.

Qualifier - A prospective student athlete who has already met grade requirements in core academic courses and has also attained the minimum qualifying score on either the SAT or the ACT.

Since entrance requirements vary among colleges, merely attaining the minimum academic requirements established by the NCAA or NAIA will not ensure acceptance by a particular college or university.

Questionnaire - A document that asks a prospect for a variety of personal, athletic and academic information. There is no standard form prescribed by the athletic associations. Consequently, questionnaires vary somewhat -- though all seek essentially the same information. A questionnaire can be sent to a prospect at virtually any time, since it is not considered a recruiting contact.

Recruiting - The overall process of identifying, contacting, evaluating, persuading and signing potential student athletes. The term recruiting is inexact, and is used by different people to mean different things. For example, some people -- particularly sports-writers -- tend to label any demonstration of interest in a student athlete as an effort to recruit him or her.

College coaches, on the other hand, distinguish between informational contacts and serious efforts to persuade an athlete to attend a particular school. According to one. Many are contacted, but few are recruited.

Recruiting Calendar - A term used to describe the annual sequence of periods during which coaches may contact prospects by mail or telephone, when visits can be made to prospects' schools and homes, and when recruits can be signed to National Letters of Intent.

The NCAA develops a recruiting calendar for each sport every year. Since the dates for allowable activities vary from sport to sport and from year to year, you will have to check with a coach or the NCAA if you wish to know when. For example, it's okay for a coach to call you or visit your home.

Recruiting Guru - A writer, publisher, broadcaster or analyst who closely follows the athletic recruiting process and offers information and opinions on a) the athletic talent of available recruits, b) which schools various recruits are likely to sign with and c) the degree of success of failure various schools are having at filling their perceived recruiting needs.

Recruiting gurus are usually in the business of providing such information to schools, general subscribers, rabid boosters and the media -- for a fee, of course.
Recruiting Nut - A fan, booster, or member of a school's alumni who is so fascinated with its athletic fortunes that he or she avidly seizes upon every available scrap of information about a) who the school is recruiting, b) the size, weight, speed, academic test scores and shoe size of potential recruits, and c) the probability that specific recruits will attend various colleges and universities.

Recruiting Service - A company that offers to help a prospect by either a) identifying schools that may suit the student athlete's interests and level of athletic ability and/or b) providing information about the prospect to schools in order to stimulate their interest in recruiting him or her. Fees and the quality of services offered by such recruiting service companies vary greatly.

Redshirting - The practice of holding a player out of actual competition for a year -- though the athlete may still practice and otherwise work out with the team. Coaches usually redshirt an athlete to allow him or her to add size, strength or skill, or to better position the athlete on the team's depth chart.

Athletes are also sometimes redshirted when they have suffered a serious injury. These are often referred to as injury or hardship redshirts.

Representative of Athletic Interests - Under NCAA rules, this is just about anyone whether they have an official connection with a school or not -- who supports or assists the school in its recruiting efforts. Not only coaches and players, but also boosters, fans, alumni -- even parents of current and past players -- may qualify as representatives if they contact a prospect. Consequently, the activities of all such representatives are subject to the NCAA's rules -- regardless of whether the school has asked them to help in its recruiting efforts.

Scholarship Athlete - A student athlete who has been given some form of financial aid in connection with his or her participation in a collegiate sport.

Signing Day - The specific day the NCAA designates as the start of the time period when student-athletes can sign Letters of Intent. For football, this is normally the first Wednesday in February. Most other sports have a different signing day in April. There is also a one-week Early Signing Period in November for sports other than football.
Tape - A videotaped recording of a prospect's athletic performance or skills. Depending on the school, coach and sport, some recruiters prefer a full game tape. Others may prefer a skills tape demonstrating a prospect's ability at specific athletic functions; for example, setting or spiking a volleyball.

Test Scores - The scores a student-athlete receives on the standardized ACT or SAT test. Under NCAA rules, student-athletes must attain a combined score of at least 700 on the SAT or 17 on the ACT, along with a grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.50 in the 13 academic core courses, in order to be eligible.

The NCAA applies a sliding scale that requires higher test scores to compensate for lower core GPAs. For example, a combined score of 900 or better on the SAT or 21 or better on the ACT is required if a student's core GPA is at the minimally acceptable 2.00 level.

NAIA eligibility rules required a minimum score of 18 on the ACT or 740 on the SAT, in addition to minimum 2.00 GPA OR graduation in the top half of one's high school class.
Transfer Student - A student athlete who transfers from one school to another with the intention of continuing to compete. NCAA rules generally require such students to obtain a release from any athletic scholarship they hold at the losing school, and to sit out a year of competition before competing on behalf of the gaining school -- though there are exceptions to this rule.

Some conferences have additional rules regarding transfers. For example, the Big Ten prohibits its students who transfer from one Big Ten school to another from ever receiving any athletic scholarship assistance from the gaining school.

Try-Out - Testing prospects' athletic ability by measuring, weighing or timing them, or having them engage in an athletic contest to evaluate their level of skill or ability. The rules governing try-outs vary by sport and level of competition. Participation in a legitimate skill-building camp, clinic or combine, however, is not deemed a try-out under NCAA rules, even though the camp or clinic may be operated by college coaches.

Unofficial Visit - See Campus Visits

Verbal Commitment - The announced intention of a player to accept a scholarship from, sign a Letter of Intent with or to attend and compete at a particular school. Despite their weighty sound, verbal commitments are not, however, binding on recruits.
Consequently, it's not unusual to hear of a student athlete who changes his or her commitment before actually signing a Letter of Intent or scholarship. Unsurprisingly, most coaches find it more than a little annoying when a recruit backs out on a verbal commitment to them. Many -- though by no means all -- coaches voluntarily refrain from further attempts to recruit any athlete who has already given a verbal commitment to another school.

Walk-On - Generally, a player who enrolls at a school and arranges to participate in a particular sport without first receiving an offer of financial aid -- though the NCAA applies a somewhat more stringent definition. Under NCAA rules, capping the total number of players allowable for various sports teams, however, the number of walk-ons a team can accept has decreased in recent years. Consequently, it's usually necessary to obtain advance permission from the coaching staff to try out as a walk-on.